I. Introduction
Making the Plan

From the early days of his presidency, President Sullivan has emphasized the necessity for the College of William and Mary to conduct a searching self-examination and devise a plan that would guide the College through the first years of its fourth century with the goal of making it "the best, small public university in the nation." The task was the more pressing because the College, like all institutions of higher education in Virginia, had suffered a series of deep budget cuts. It is now clear that state resources will continue to be limited and that if the College is to realize the President's vision, it must do so by making the wisest possible use of its resources.

In September 1993, President Sullivan charged the Provost with chairing a College-wide Committee to draft a Strategic Plan. A broad committee consisting of the vice presidents, the academic deans, the seven members of the executive committee of the Faculty Assembly, the Director of the institutional Self Study, one undergraduate and one graduate student, the Director of Athletics, and the Executive Vice President of the Society of the Alumni, began work the following month.

The Committee began by framing two sets of planning principles, one of which became a joint document of Strategic Planning and the institutional Self-Study (see sect. II). These principles -- one dealing with the character and mission of the College, the other with the financial and budgetary principles that should govern its operation (see Appendix I) -- were used to guide and discipline the deliberations and recommendations of the Committee.

Cooperation with the Self Study has gone beyond the Planning Principles. Apart from the involvement of the Director, the chairs of a number of Self Study committees met with subcommittees of Strategic Planning to formulate goals and strategies on topics of mutual concern.

In the course of its work, the Strategic Planning Committee considered the impact of the external environment upon the College (see Appendix II), and amassed and examined information and budget data on every part of the College. All academic programs and administrative offices completed unit analyses which were designed to examine each unit's centrality to mission, level of demand, cost, qualitative factors, and competitive position. By carefully and thoroughly completing these analyses and responding to the follow-up questions sent to many units, the community provided valuable information and generous assistance to the Committee.

The Committee held two open meetings during the academic year 1993-94, the first to discuss the two sets of planning principles, and the second to discuss an Interim Report to the community. The documents were published in the William and Mary News and copies were widely distributed on and off campus.

In April 1994, the passage of an appropriations act that required all institutions of higher education in Virginia to submit restructuring plans by 1 September 1994 both demonstrated the importance of strategic planning and complicated the process. On the one hand, much of the work necessary to complete a restructuring plan had already been done. On the other, the work of the Committee was not finished; the open discussion of a draft Strategic Plan that had been promised to the community had not yet taken place. Consequently, the Restructuring Plan was less specific in some areas than it would have been had the Strategic Plan been completed. The need to send an addendum to the Restructuring Plan to the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) by early November 1994 also imposed time constraints upon the last stages of strategic planning.

After almost twelve months of deliberations, the Committee now submits this draft report to the William and Mary community. We invite your comments and suggestions in writing and at the open hearings, the schedule for which has been announced. After the comment period closes on 14 October, the Committee will reconvene and reconsider its recommendations in light of the comments we receive.